Hedgehog
nounA small nocturnal mammal covered in protective spines, which rolls into a ball when threatened.
How to spell hedgehog
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce hedgehog
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does hedgehog mean?
- nounA small nocturnal mammal covered in protective spines, which rolls into a ball when threatened.
Hedgehog in a sentence
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A hedgehog curled into a tight ball when the dog approached.
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They left a saucer of water out for the hedgehog that visits the garden each night.
Where does hedgehog come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English compound, first recorded in the late 1300s, that simply welds together two older words. The first part, 'hedge', comes from Old English 'hecg', meaning a boundary formed of bushes or shrubs, and the second part, 'hog', also Old English, meaning a pig or swine. The little animal earned the name because it shuffles and snuffles through hedgerows and undergrowth, rooting about with a snout-like nose much as a pig does. Earlier and regional English knew the creature by other names such as 'urchin', a word that itself goes back to the Latin 'ericius' for hedgehog, and that older sense survives in 'sea urchin'. Because both halves of 'hedgehog' are everyday native words, the spelling is transparent: the only thing to watch is the silent 'd' tucked inside 'hedge'.
How the word is built
- hedge (boundary of shrubs)
- hog (pig), naming the animal for its habit of rooting through hedgerows like a small pig
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